In Belarus, journalist charged with libeling Lukashenko

New York, July 2, 2012--Andrzej Poczobut, the prominent Grodno-based
correspondent for the largest Polish daily Gazeta
Wyborcza, was formally indicted Saturday on criminal charges of libeling President
Aleksandr Lukashenko through a series of articles critical of administration
policies.

Poczobut, who had spent nine
days in prison, was released from custody Saturday pending trial, but
banned from leaving Grodno, local and international
press reported. If convicted, Poczobut faces up to five years in jail. No trial
date has been set.

Poczobut was arrested on June 21, the same day Grodno police
raided his apartment and confiscated his personal computers in connection with
the criminal libel investigation, the pro-opposition news website Charter 97 reported. Authorities did not return Poczobut's computers
after releasing him from custody Saturday, local press reported.

In an interview
Saturday with the independent newspaper Nasha
Niva, Poczobut said he will continue practicing journalism despite the harassment
and prosecution. According to the Minsk-based Belarusian Association of
Journalists, authorities listed 11 of
Poczobut's articles as cause for the raid and investigation in their search
warrant. In those articles, published in Charter
97 and the independent news website Belarussky
Partizan, Poczobut criticized Lukashenko's domestic and international
policies, and condemned the execution of two men convicted of the April
2011 bombing at a Minsk subway station. Authorities said that in his
articles Poczobut libeled Lukashenko, and insulted and discredited Belarus, the
journalist told Nasha Niva.

"Reporting critically about government policy should not be
considered a crime but a public service," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program
Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "We call on Belarusian authorities to
immediately drop all charges against Andrzej Poczobut, lift the travel ban
against him, return all of his seized reporting equipment, and allow him to do his
job without reprisal."